Email drags Nationals into ICAC inquiry

By Kirsty Needham State Political Editor

16 August 2014 — 6:04pm

The Nationals have been drawn into the Independent Commission Against Corruption’s inquiry for the first time. A central figure in the party’s NSW head office has been named as the mastermind of a plan for former Labor MP Joe Tripodi to lobby the O’Farrell government on behalf of billionaire Nathan Tinkler.

The ICAC investigation into political donations and lobbying last week ended the political careers of Newcastle MP Tim Owen and Charlestown MP Andrew Cornwell, who resigned from Parliament. Six other Liberal MPs have been suspended from the party.

The Nationals have so far escaped the ICAC’s scrutiny, but Fairfax Media can reveal a piece of crucial evidence uncovered by investigators was written by NSW Nationals regional co-ordinator Ross Cadell, and the party is nervous.

The email written by Mr Cadell lays out a dream team, headed by Mr Tripodi, to target Nationals ministers in the newly-elected O’Farrell government, using Nationals staff as ‘‘possible conduits’’.

Mr Cadell is also listed as an adviser for the project, to lobby for a coal loader, in the email sent to two executives of Mr Tinkler’s company Buildev – Darren Williams and David Sharpe – on April 20, 2011.

Mr Tinkler had made a $50,000 donation to the federal and NSW Nationals three weeks earlier, Electoral Commission records show.

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ICAC counsel assisting, Geoffrey Watson, SC, described the email as a ‘‘pretty important document’’ in his opening address, but did not mention Mr Cadell’s role with the Nationals. Mr Cadell has not been questioned by the ICAC.

The email lists Mr Owen and former police minister Mike Gallacher as ‘‘allies’’ in the project to advance ‘‘Tinkler’s Hunter Vision’’, with Mr Owen slated for internal lobbying and Mr Gallacher providing feedback.

In his first comments about the email, Mr Cadell said the document was merely a failed pitch for business written for a friend, and he never worked for Buildev.

‘‘It’s a pitch thing we constructed. I didn’t get a cent,’’ he said.

Anne Wills has been named in the ICAC inquiry for her involvement with Mr Tripodi and Buildev in organising a campaign against Labor MP Jodi McKay at the 2011 election.

Mr Cadell said he was a close friend of Ms Wills, and he had written the email for her after the election as the ‘‘job tender’’ for a $50,000 contract with Mr Tinkler’s Hunter Ports.

The Buildev executives were copied into the email, and listed as ‘‘Project Principals’’, because they were also helping Ms Wills, he said.

Mr Cadell said he had included Mr Gallacher and Mr Owen’s names in the plan as ‘‘allies’’ of Mr Tinkler because ‘‘that is what I would have been told’’ by Ms Wills and Mr Williams.

Mr Cadell is the former sponsorship manager of Mr Tinkler’s NRL team, the Newcastle Knights.

He denied any knowledge of the $50,000 donation made by Mr Tinkler to the Nationals.

‘‘I regret this has dropped the Nationals in it a little bit,’’ he said.

Nationals state director Ben Franklin, who is named in the email as a ‘‘possible conduit’’, said he had questioned Mr Cadell about the document.

‘‘I’ve asked him if he was remunerated for that work or actively lobbying any Nationals MP, staffer or government member, and he said he didn’t,’’ said Mr Franklin, an upper house candidate for next year.

‘‘This is something he did in his own private time ... he wasn’t doing the lobbying himself, he was providing the advice.’’

Both Mr Cadell and Mr Franklin are former Young Liberal presidents. Mr Franklin brought Mr Cadell into the Nationals in 2011 to run the Cessnock election campaign.

Mr Cadell assisted motorcycle champion Casey Stoner and his father’s move overseas to pursue Stoner’s career by writing a marketing prospectus for them to show to potential sponsors. He likened it to the Tinkler pitch he had written.